THE MISSING PROPERTY

"Take back your gold!" was the customary rebuff given the villain of old-time melodrama when he tried to use his ill-gotten gains for improper ends, and if Senator Borah's plan succeeds he will be able to clear the name of the Republican party by applying the same method to Harry F. Sinclair, whose contributions to the 1920 campaign fund of the party have been discovered to be not entirely from altruistic motives. But a necessary accompaniment to such a speech is the gold itself, and unhappily the Republicans have long ago seen the last of it disappear for "election expenses" of one kind or another. Thus in the absence of the original funds the Senator from Idaho has inaugurated a drive to raise the necessary $160,000.

Already $5,500 has been contributed, and promises of more have been heard from many sources, according to the latest bulletins. But the Senator says that the names of the donors will be kept secret, for reasons known only to himself. The situation thus begins to resemble the one familiar to readers of detective stories in which a jewel has disappeared and the lights are extinguished for the thief to return it undiscovered if he so desires. The only chance of failure for such a plan is that the treasure will not be returned intact, and unless various guilty consciences are stimulated to more violent action it is to be feared that the crusading Senator will have to postpone his dramatic renunciation.